Beamformed measurement for new radio (NR)

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for adequately measuring reference signals while a user equipment (UE) uses beamforming for optimal receiving. Embodiments describe how a UE may measure received-beamformed reference signals as well as how to determine a reported value while multiple beams are measured or a receiver diversity is in use by the UE. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/500,351, filed Oct. 2, 2019, entitled “BEAMFORMEDMEASUREMENT FOR NEW RADIO (NR), which is a national phase entry under 35U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/US2018/035484, filedMay 31, 2018, entitled “BEAMFORMED MEASUREMENT FOR NEW RADIO (NR),”which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/514,516, filed Jun. 2, 2017, entitled “Beamformed measurement for newradio (NR),” the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technicalfield of wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description that may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches describedin this section are not prior art to the claims in the presentdisclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in thissection.

Existing reference signal measurements may not be applicable indeveloping wireless networks. New solutions are needed in this regard.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitatethis description, like reference numerals designate like structuralelements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by wayof limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of a network comprising auser equipment (UE) and an evolved Node B (eNB) in a wireless network,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates a radio front end incorporating a mmWave radio frontend and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integratedcircuits. FIG. 3B illustrates an alternative radio front end.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an exemplary radio frequency (RF)receiver circuitry according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure tofacilitate a process of reference signal measurements by an UE inaccordance with some embodiments. FIG. 5B illustrates an operationflow/algorithmic structure to facilitate the process of reference signalmeasurements from an eNB perspective, in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates hardware resources in accordance with someembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof wherein like numeralsdesignate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way ofillustration embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in alimiting sense.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions oroperations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understandingthe claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should notbe construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in theorder of presentation. Operations described may be performed in adifferent order than the described embodiment. Various additionaloperations may be performed and/or described operations may be omittedin additional embodiments.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases “A or B” and “Aand/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the presentdisclosure, the phrases “A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” mean (A), (B),(C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” or “inembodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same ordifferent embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, are synonymous.

As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, orinclude any combination of integrated circuits (for example, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits,system on a chip (SOC), system in a package (SiP), that provides thedescribed functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may executeone or more software or firmware modules to provide the describedfunctions. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at leastpartially operable in hardware.

In Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications, while a reference signal isreceived by a UE, a receiver (Rx) chain may measure, for example, areference signal received power (RSRP) referenced at the antennaconnector of the Rx chain. Then, the UE may determine a value toindicate the measured RSRP based on pre-determined tables and reportthat value. When more than one Rx chain are used for receiver diversity,individual Rx chains may generate individual values corresponding toindividual RSRPs measured at individual Rx chains. Then, the reportedvalue shall not be lower than the corresponding RSRP of any of theindividual diversity branches, according to 3rd Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 36.214 v14.2.0 (Mar. 23,2017). Another example is measuring reference signal receive quality(RSRQ) referenced at the antenna connector of the Rx chain. Completedefinitions for RSRP and RSRQ in TS 36.214 are detailed in Table 1 andTable 2, respectively. Similar implementations are used for measurementsof received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and reference signal-signalto noise and interference ratio (RS-SINR).

TABLE 1 Definition Reference signal received power (RSRP), is defined asthe linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resourceelements that carry cell-specific reference signals within theconsidered measurement frequency bandwidth. For RSRP determination, thecell-specific reference signals R₀ according to TS 36.211 [3] shall beused. If the UE can reliably detect that R₁ is available, it may use R₁in addition to R₀ to determine RSRP. If higher layers indicatemeasurements based on discovery signals, the UE shall measure RSRP inthe subframes in the configured discovery signal occasions. If the UEcan reliably detect that cell-specific reference signals are present inother subframes, the UE may use those subframes in addition to determineRSRP. The reference point for the RSRP shall be the antenna connector ofthe UE. If receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported valueshall not be lower than the corresponding RSRP of any of the individualdiversity branches. Applicable for RRC_IDLE intra-frequency, RRC_IDLEinter-frequency, RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency, RRC_CONNECTEDinter-frequency

TABLE 2 Definition Reference signal received quality (RSRQ) is definedas the ratio N × RSRP/(E-UTRA carrier RSSI), where N is the number ofRBs of the E-UTRA carrier RSSI measurement bandwidth. The measurementsin the numerator and denominator shall be made over the same set ofresource blocks. E-UTRA carrier received signal strength indicator(RSSI), comprises the linear average of the total received power (in[W]) observed only in certain OFDM symbols of measurement subframes, inthe measurement bandwidth, over N number of resource blocks by the UEfrom all sources, including co-channel serving and non-serving cells,adjacent channel interference, thermal noise, etc. Unless indicatedotherwise by higher layers, RSSI is measured only from OFDM symbolscontaining reference symbols for antenna port 0 of measurementsubframes. If higher layers indicate all OFDM symbols for performingRSRQ measurements, then RSSI is measured from all OFDM symbols of the DLpart of measurement subframes. If higher layers indicate certainsubframes for performing RSRQ measurements, then RSSI is measured fromall OFDM symbols of the DL part of the indicated subframes. If higherlayers indicate measurements based on discovery signals, RSSI ismeasured from all OFDM symbols of the DL part of the subframes in theconfigured discovery signal occasions. The reference point for the RSRQshall be the antenna connector of the UE. If receiver diversity is inuse by the UE, the reported value shall not be lower than thecorresponding RSRQ of any of the individual diversity branches.Applicable for RRC_IDLE intra-frequency, RRC_IDLE inter-frequency,RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency, RRC_CONNECTED inter-frequency

Various embodiments describe apparatuses, methods, and storage media forconfiguring measurements of a reference signal received by a UE whilethe UE may utilize one or more antenna panels for beamforming. In fifthgeneration (5G) new radio (NR) communications, a UE may utilizebeamforming techniques for receiving and/or transmitting signals,especially while operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency and submmWave frequency. An antenna panel may include a plurality of antennasor antenna elements that form one or more beams, so that an antenna gainor beamforming gain may improve the receiving signal power level toenhance the UE's receiving capability. Thus, reference signals may bemeasured as receive-beamformed signals. Individual Rx chains may furtherreceive such receive-beamformed signals after the beamforming process bythe antenna panel. In some embodiments, more than one panel may be used.It is noted that antennas and antenna elements are used interchangeablyherein.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example wireless network 100(hereinafter “network 100”) in accordance with various embodimentsherein. The network 100 may include a UE 105 wirelessly communicatedwith one eNB 110. In some embodiments, the network 100 may be a 5G NRnetwork, a radio access network (RAN) of a third generation partnershipproject (3GPP) LTE network, such as evolved universal terrestrial radioaccess network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type ofRAN. The UE 105 may be configured to connect, for example, to becommunicatively coupled, with the eNB 110. In this example, theconnection 112 is illustrated as an air interface to enablecommunicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellularcommunications protocols such as a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWaveand sub-mmWave, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, aPush-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP LongTerm Evolution (LTE) protocol, and the like.

The UE 105 is illustrated as a smartphone (for example, a handheldtouchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellularnetworks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computingdevices, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptopcomputer, desktop computer, wireless handset, or any computing deviceincluding a wireless communications interface. In some embodiments, theUE 105 can comprise a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE, whichcan comprise a network access layer designed for low-power NB-IoTapplications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An NB-IoT UE canutilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-typecommunications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or devicevia a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe)or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoTnetworks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiatedexchange of data. An NB-IoT/MTC network describes interconnectingNB-IoT/MTC UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embeddedcomputing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-livedconnections. The NB-IoT/MTC UEs may execute background applications (forexample, keep-alive message, status updates, location related services,etc.).

The eNB 110 can enable or terminate the connection 112. The eNB 110 canbe referred to as a base station (BS), NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), nextGeneration NodeB (gNB), RAN node, serving cell, and so forth, and cancomprise ground stations (for example, terrestrial access points) orsatellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (forexample, a cell).

The eNB 110 can be the first point of contact for the UE 105. In someembodiments, the eNB 110 can fulfill various logical functionsincluding, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functionssuch as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radioresource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes, for example, the eNB 110 to theUE 105, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. Thegrid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid ortime-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in thedownlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is acommon practice for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Eachcolumn and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symboland one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource gridin the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. Thesmallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resourceelement. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, whichdescribe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements.Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in thefrequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resourcesthat currently can be allocated. There are several different physicaldownlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data andhigher-layer signaling to the UE 105. The physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format andresource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things.It may also inform the UE 105 about the transport format, resourceallocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) informationrelated to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling(assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 105within a cell) may be performed at the eNB 110 based on channel qualityinformation fed back from any of the UE 105. The downlink resourceassignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (for example,assigned to) the UE 105.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, whichmay then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There canbe four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with differentnumbers of CCEs (for example, aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one ormore enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, eachECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may haveother numbers of EREGs in some situations.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the UE 105 may include millimeter wavecommunication circuitry grouped according to functions. The circuitryshown here is for illustrative purposes and the UE 105 may include othercircuitry not shown here in FIG. 1 . The UE 105 may include protocolprocessing circuitry 115, which may implement one or more of layeroperations related to medium access control (MAC), radio link control(RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resource control(RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS). The protocol processing circuitry115 may include one or more processing cores (not shown) to executeinstructions and one or more memory structures (not shown) to storeprogram and data information.

The UE 105 may further include digital baseband circuitry 125, which mayimplement physical layer (PHY) functions including one or more of HARQfunctions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/or decoding, layermapping and/or demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symboland/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port pre-coding and/ordecoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequencyor spatial coding, reference signal generation and/or detection,preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequencegeneration and/or detection, control channel signal blind decoding, andother related functions.

The UE 105 may further include transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry145, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 155, and/or one or more antennapanels 165.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 155 may include multiple parallel RFchains or branches for one or more of transmit or receive functions;each chain or branch may be coupled to one antenna panel 165.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 115 may includeone or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to providecontrol functions for the digital baseband circuitry 125 (or simply,“baseband circuitry 125”), transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry145, radio frequency circuitry 155, and/or one or more antenna panels165.

A UE reception may be established by and via the one or more antennapanels 165, RF circuitry 155, digital baseband circuitry 125, and theprotocol processing circuitry 115. The one or more antenna panels mayreceive a transmission from an eNB 110 by receive-beamforming signalsreceived by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or moreantenna panels 165. Further details regarding the UE 105 architectureare illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, and 6 . In some embodiments, thebaseband circuitry 125 may contain both the transmit circuitry 135 andthe receive circuitry 145. In other embodiments, the baseband circuitry125 may be implemented in separate chips or modules, for example, onechip including the transmit circuitry 135 and another chip including thereceive circuitry 145.

In some embodiments, the UE 105 may include similar circuitry componentsas illustrated above, but suitable for operating at sub-mmWavefrequency. In one example, mmWave refers to a frequency range above 24GHz and sub-mmWave refers to a frequency range above microwave frequencyand below 24 GHz. It is noted that the range of mmWave and sub-mmWaveare not dictated by one particular number, but are used fordistinguishing from existing LTE operation below 6 GHz.

Similar to the UE 105, the eNB 110 may include millimeter wavecommunication circuitry grouped according to functions. The eNB 110 mayinclude protocol processing circuitry 120, digital baseband circuitry130, transmit circuitry 140, receive circuitry 150, radio frequency (RF)circuitry 160, and/or one or more antenna panels 170.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 200 may includeapplication circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry 206,radio-frequency front end (RFFE) circuitry 208, and a plurality ofantennas 210 together at least as shown. The baseband circuitry 204 maybe similar to and substantially interchangeable with the basebandcircuitry 125 in some embodiments. The plurality of antennas 210 mayconstitute one or more antenna panels for beamforming. The components ofthe illustrated device 200 may be included in a UE or an eNB. In someembodiments, the device 200 may include fewer elements (for example, aneNB may not utilize the application circuitry 202, and instead include aprocessor/controller to process IP data received from an evolved packetcore (EPC)). In some embodiments, the device 200 may include additionalelements such as, for example, a memory/storage, display, camera,sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, thecomponents described below may be included in more than one device (forexample, said circuitry may be separately included in more than onedevice for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 202 may include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (for example,graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors maybe coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured toexecute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable variousapplications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In someembodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP datapackets received from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors orcontrol logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signalpath of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for atransmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband circuitry 204 mayinterface with the application circuitry 202 for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifthgeneration (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s)204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to bedeveloped in the future (for example, second generation (2G), sixthgeneration (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (for example, one ormore of baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio controlfunctions that enable communication with one or more radio networks viathe RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of thefunctionality of baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modulesstored in the memory 204G and executed via a central processing unit(CPU) 204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limitedto, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequencyshifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry ofthe baseband circuitry 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In someembodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or LowDensity Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodimentsof modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are notlimited to these examples and may include other suitable functionalityin other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or moreaudio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F maybe include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellationand may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in asingle chip, in a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board insome embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituentcomponents of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a SOC.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), awireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network(WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured tosupport radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may bereferred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include one or moreswitches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication withthe wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include receiver circuitry206A, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals receivedfrom the RFFE circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the basebandcircuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include transmitter circuitry206B, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signalsprovided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals tothe RFFE circuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio integrated circuit (IC)circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path, which may includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or moreantennas 210 and beamformed by a panel of the antennas 210 whileoperating at millimeter wave frequency, amplify the received signals andprovide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RFcircuitry 206 for further processing. RFFE circuitry 208 may alsoinclude a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configuredto amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 fortransmission by one or more of the antennas 210, with or withoutbeamforming. In various embodiments, the amplification through transmitor receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 206,solely in the RFFE 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the RFFE208.

In some embodiments, the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a TX/RX switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The RFFEcircuitry 208 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include anlow noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide theamplified received RF signals as an output (for example, to the RFcircuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 mayinclude a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (for example,provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RFsignals for subsequent transmission (for example, by one or more of theone or more antennas 210).

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 204 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 204, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 202 may utilize data (for example, packet data) received fromthese layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (for example,transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol(UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radioresource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. Asreferred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC)layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred toherein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/eNB,described in further detail below.

FIG. 3A illustrates an embodiment of a radio front end 300 incorporatinga mmWave radio-frequency front end (RFFE) 305 and one or moresub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) 310. TheRFFE 305 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with theRFFE 208 in some embodiments.

In this embodiment, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs 310 (or simply“RFICs 310”) may be physically separated from the mmWave RFFE 305. RFICs310 may include connection to one or more antennas 320. RFFE 305 may becoupled with multiple antennas 315, which may constitute one or moreantenna panels.

FIG. 3B illustrates an alternate embodiment of a radio front end module325. In this aspect both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radiofunctions may be implemented in the same physical RFFE 330. RFFE 330 mayincorporate both millimeter wave antennas 335 and sub-millimeter waveantennas 340. The RFFE 330 may be similar to and substantiallyinterchangeable with the RFFE 208 in some embodiments.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an exemplary RF receiver (Rx) circuitry400 according to some embodiments. The Rx circuitry 400 may be similarto the RFFE 208, the receiver circuitry 206A, or a combination thereof.FIG. 4 may schematically illustrate how a receive beam is formed andprocessed by an RF front end and receiver circuitry.

RF Rx circuitry 400 may include one or more RF Rx paths 405, which insome embodiments may include one or more antennas, filters, low noiseamplifiers, programmable phase shifters and power supplies (not shown).In some embodiments, each RF Rx path 405 may include or be coupled to anantenna panel comprising multiple antenna elements that may form areceive beam. The antenna panel may be similar to and substantiallyinterchangeable with the antenna panel 165 in FIG. 1 . An RF Rx path 405may be coupled with a receiver branch for further received signalprocessing.

In some embodiments, multiple RF Rx paths 405 may be coupled to oneantenna panel to form receive beams. RF Rx circuitry 400 may includepower combining circuitry 410 in some embodiments. In some otherembodiments, power combining circuitry 410 may operate bidirectionally,such that the same physical circuitry may be configured to operate as apower divider when the device is transmitting, and as a power combinerwhen the device is receiving. FIG. 4 focuses on the power combiningaspect from the UE reception perspective. In some embodiments, powercombining circuitry 410 may include wholly or partially separatecircuitries to perform power combining when the device is receiving. Insome embodiments, power combining circuitry 410 may include passivecircuitry comprising one or more two-way power combiners arranged in atree. In some embodiments, power combining circuitry 410 may includeactive circuitry comprising amplifier circuits.

In some embodiments, RF Rx circuitry 400 may be coupled with one or morereceiver branches. A combined RF path interface 415 may connect a powercombining circuitry 410 to a receiver branch 420. Multiple receiverbranches may be connected to multiple power combining circuitry 410 viamultiple combined RF path interfaces 415. One or more receiver branches420 may constitute the receiver circuitry 206A.

In LTE, as aforementioned, RSRP may be used for measuring the receivedpower level of a reference signal to indicate signal strength from oneor more cells. RSRQ, RSSI and/or RS-SINR may be alternatively oradditionally used for similar purposes. For simplicity of thediscussion, only RSRP is illustrated as an example, but all thedescriptions herein apply to the other reference signal measurements, aswell as, but not limited to, RSRQ, RSSI and RS-SINR.

RSRP is defined as the linear average over the power contribution inWatt of the resource elements received at each antenna connector, whichis associated with each receiver branch. When one or more diversityreceiver branches are in use by the UE, the reported value shall not belower than the corresponding RSRP of any of the individual diversitybranches, according to TS 36.214.

In NR with respect to mmWave and/or sub-mmWave operation, receiverbeamforming may be used by a UE receiver. In beamforming, each antennaof an antenna panel may receive a reference signal with respect to acell. Two or more antennas of the panel may be in use for beamforming.The antennas may shift phases on individual received reference signals.The shifted phases may have different degrees corresponding torespective antennas in order to achieve a desired antenna gain for thereceived reference signal. The assigned phase shifts may be differentdue to different reference signal receive patterns, which may beaffected by multiple factors, such as a UE location, frequency band andchannel bandwidth, interference, etc. Once a receive beam is formed bythe antenna panel, the receive beam may be received and furtherprocessed by a receiver branch. With respect to the same referencesignal regarding a specific cell, more than one beam may be formed bythe antenna panel. Then, a linear average over the receive beams inpower measurements (measured in Waft) may be used to calculate the powerlevel of the reference signal with respect to the same antennasassociated with the same receiver branch. For an instance of RSRP, acorresponding value may be reported based on the calculation on thereceived power of the beams. Thus, both the UE and eNB may haveknowledge of the received power level with respect to a receiver branch.Therefore, the UE and eNB may determine further operations based on thisinformation.

In some embodiments, one or more diversity receiver branches may beimplemented to enhance UE receiving capability. For example, a UE mayhave a number of 2×N receiving antennas (N is an integer and larger than2). Then a number of N antennas may be used to form Rx beam 1 andanother number of N antennas may be used to form Rx beam 2. The RSRP ofRx beam 1 is value x, and the RSRP of Rx beam 2 is value y. Then, thereported value of RSRP may be equal to the maximized value of x and y.Multiple diversity receiver branches may be used so that more than twoRSRP values may be generated by measurements. Then the maximum valueamong all of the RSRP values may be reported to indicate the UE's RSRPregarding the particular cell.

In some embodiments, a UE may have one or more diversity receiverbranches to receive multiple Rx beams, so that multiple RSRP values maybe generated by RSRP measurements. Then an averaged value calculatedbased on all of the RSRP values may be reported. For example, values x,y, and z may be determined from RSRP measurements with respect to threebeams received by three groups of antennas. The reported value may becalculated by averaging all three of them, (x+y+z)/3.

In some other embodiments, among multiple RSRP values, only a number oflargest RSRP values but not all of the values may be used for averaging.For example, RSRP values x, y, and z have a relationship that z>y>x, andonly the top two of the values may be used for averaging. Then thereported value may be calculated based on (z+y)/2.

In some embodiments, RSRQ, RSSI and/or RS-SINR may be used in a mannersimilar to that described above with respect to RSRP. In variousembodiments, the reference signals may be primary synchronization signal(PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), channel-state informationreference signal (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), Phasetracking reference signal (PT-RS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS),and new radio reference signal (NR-RS).

In some embodiments, a UE may have one panel of antenna elements to formone or more Rx beams. Alternatively, a UE may have multiple panels ofantenna elements to form multiple Rx beams. One or more panels may feedinto one or more receiver branches.

FIG. 5A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 tofacilitate a process of reference signal measurements by the UE 105 inaccordance with some embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmicstructure 500 may be performed by the UE 105 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 510,forming a receive beam of the received reference signal by an antennapanel. The reference signal may be transmitted by an eNB 110 withrespect to a cell. In some embodiments, forming the receive beam mayinclude the one or more baseband processors controlling an RFFE 208 andthe antenna panel to generate the receive beam. For example, thebaseband circuitry may control respective phase shifting at each antennaelement to achieve desired antenna gains. In some embodiments, multiplebeams may be received by one panel of antennas. In some otherembodiments, more than one receiver branch may be used for receiving.Therefore, more than one antenna panel may form more than one receivebeam, which may be further received and processed by correspondingreceiver branches. Receive beams may be receive-beamformed referencesignals. In some embodiments, the reference signals may be PSS, SSS,CSI-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, CRS, and NR-RS.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may further include, at520, measuring receive-beamformed reference signals by the one or morebaseband processors. The measurement may be referenced for individualreceiver branches. In some embodiments, RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI and/RS-SINR maybe used for reference signal measurement.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may further include, at530, determining one or more values to indicate respective measuredreceive-beamformed reference signals or measured receive beams withrespect to individual receiver branches by a CPU coupled with the one ormore baseband processors. In some embodiments, only one receiver branchmay be used for receiving the one or more receiver beams. Then, only onecorresponding value may be determined and reported accordingly. In someother embodiments, more than one receiver branch may be used forreceiving more than one receiver beam. Thus, more than one value may bedetermined.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may further include, at540, generating a baseband signal to report the value. This may beperformed by the one or more baseband processors coupled with the CPU.In some embodiments, the CPU coupled with the one or more basebandprocessors may generate a report to include the value. In someembodiments, a maximum value of all the determined values may bereported. In another example, the reported value may not be lower thanany of the determined values. In some other embodiments, the reportedvalue may be an average value of all the determined values based on anaveraging calculation. In some other embodiments, a number of thedetermined values may be selected for the averaging calculation. Thenumber of determined values to be selected may be predetermined andequal to or larger than two, and the selected values are the largestvalues among all the determined values. The generated baseband signalmay be transmitted to the eNB 110 as described above.

FIG. 5B illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 tofacilitate the process of reference signal measurements by the eNB 110in accordance with some embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmicstructure 505 may be performed by the eNB 110 or circuitry thereof, forexample, baseband circuitry.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 may include, at 515,transmitting a reference signal. In some embodiments, the referencesignals may be PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, CRS, and NR-RS.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 may further include, at525, processing a baseband signal that includes the reported value fromthe UE 105.

FIG. 6 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 204 of FIG. 2 may comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E mayinclude a memory interface, 604A-604E, respectively, to send/receivedata to/from the memory 204G.

The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memoryinterface 612 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/frommemory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitryinterface 614 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/fromthe application circuitry 202 of FIG. 2 ), an RF circuitry interface 616(for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206of FIG. 2 ), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 618 (forexample, an interface to send/receive data to/from Near FieldCommunication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (for example,Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communicationcomponents), and a power management interface 620 (for example, aninterface to send/receive power or control signals).

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 7 shows adiagrammatic representation of hardware resources 700 including one ormore processors (or processor cores) 710, one or more memory/storagedevices 720, and one or more communication resources 730, each of whichmay be communicatively coupled via a bus 740. For embodiments where nodevirtualization (for example, network function virtualization (NFV)) isutilized, a hypervisor 702 may be executed to provide an executionenvironment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize thehardware resources 700.

The processors 710 (for example, a central processing unit (CPU), areduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complexinstruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit(CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequencyintegrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitablecombination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 712 and aprocessor 714.

The memory/storage devices 720 may include main memory, disk storage, orany suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 720 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 730 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 704 or one or more databases 706 via anetwork 708. For example, the communication resources 730 may includewired communication components (for example, for coupling via aUniversal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFCcomponents, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy),Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 750 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 710 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussedherein. For example, in an embodiment in which the hardware resources700 are implemented into the UE 105, the instructions 750 may cause theUE to perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure500. In other embodiments, the hardware resources 700 may be implementedinto the eNB 110.

The instructions 750 may cause the eNB 110 to perform some or all of theoperation flow/algorithmic structure 505. The instructions 750 mayreside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors710 (for example, within the processor's cache memory), thememory/storage devices 720, or any suitable combination thereof.Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 750 may be transferred tothe hardware resources 700 from any combination of the peripheraldevices 704 or the databases 706. Accordingly, the memory of processors710, the memory/storage devices 720, the peripheral devices 704, and thedatabases 706 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readablemedia.

Some non-limiting Examples of various embodiments are provided below.

Example 1 may include one or more computer-readable media comprisinginstructions to, upon execution of the instructions by one or moreprocessors of a UE, cause the UE to: measure a reference signal that isreceive-beamformed by an antenna panel of a plurality of antennas;determine a value to indicate the measured reference signal; andgenerate a baseband signal to report the value.

Example 2 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example1 and/or some other example herein, wherein upon execution, theinstructions are to further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of thereference signals that are receive-beamformed by a respective pluralityof antenna panels; determine a plurality of values to respectivelyindicate the plurality of measured reference signals; and generate abaseband signal to report the value based on a determination that thevalue is a maximum value among the determined plurality of values.

Example 3 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-2 and/or some other example herein, wherein upon execution,the instructions are to further cause the UE to control an RFFE of theUE to form, based on the reference signal received by the antenna panel,the receive-beamformed reference signal.

Example 4 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the valuecorresponds to an SS-RSRP, or an SS-RSRQ.

Example 5 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the SS is a primary SS(PSS).

Example 6 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the SS is a secondary SS(SSS).

Example 7 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the referencesignal is an SS or a CSI-RS.

Example 8 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the value corresponds to anRS-SINR of the SS or the CSI-RS.

Example 9 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the value corresponds to anRSSI of the SS or the CSI-RS.

Example 10 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the valuecorresponds to a CSI-RSRP or CSI-RSRQ.

Example 11 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the referencesignal is an NR-RS.

Example 12 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 11 and/or some other example herein, and the value correspondsto, based on the NR-RS, an RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR.

Example 13 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexamples 1-3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the referencesignal is a DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

Example 14 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 13 and/or some other example herein, wherein the valuecorresponds to an RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR of the reference signal.

Example 15 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein upon execution, theinstructions are to further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of thereference signals that are receive beamformed by a respective pluralityof antenna panels; generate an averaged value based on a plurality ofvalues that respectively correspond to the plurality of measuredreference signals; and generate the baseband signal to report theaveraged value.

Example 16 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein upon execution, theinstructions are to further cause the UE to: measure a plurality of thereference signals that are receive beamformed by a respective pluralityof antenna panels; select more than one value from a plurality of valuesthat correspond to the plurality of measured reference signals, whereinany of the selected values is larger than any of the unselected values;generate an averaged value based on the selected values; and report theaveraged value.

Example 17 may include one or more computer-readable media comprisinginstructions to, upon execution of the instructions by one or moreprocessors of an eNB, cause the eNB to: process a transmission, transmita reference signal to a UE; and process a baseband signal, transmittedby the UE, to determine a reported value to indicate a measurement of areceive-beamformed reference signal that is received by a receiver panelof the UE, wherein the receiver panel is to include a plurality ofreceiver antennas.

Example 18 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the reported valuecorresponds to a maximum value of a plurality of values to respectivelyindicate receive-beamformed reference signals that are received by arespective plurality of receiver panels.

Example 19 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein thereceive-beamformed reference signals are measured by RSRP, RSRP, RSSI orRS-SINR.

Example 20 may include the one or more computer-readable media ofexample 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the referencesignal is a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

Example 21 may include a method comprising: measuring or causing tomeasure a reference signal that is receive-beamformed by an antennapanel of a plurality of antennas; determining or causing to determine avalue to indicate the measured reference signal; and generating orcausing to generate a baseband signal to report the value.

Example 22 may include the method of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method further comprises: measuring orcausing to measure a plurality of the reference signals that arereceive-beamformed by a respective plurality of antenna panels;determining or causing to determine a plurality of values torespectively indicate the plurality of measured reference signals; andgenerating or causing to generate a baseband signal to report the valuebased on a determination that the value is a maximum value among thedetermined plurality of values.

Example 23 may include the method of examples 21-22 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method further comprises forming or cause toform, based on the reference signal received by the antenna panel, thereceive-beamformed reference signal.

Example 24 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the value corresponds to an SS-RSRP or anSS-RSRQ.

Example 25 may include the method of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein an SS is a primary SS (PSS).

Example 26 may include the method of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein an SS is a secondary SS (SSS).

Example 27 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the reference signal is an SS or a CSI-RS.

Example 28 may include the method of example 27 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the value corresponds to an RS-SINR of the SS orthe CSI-RS.

Example 29 may include the method of example 27 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the value corresponds to an RSSI of the SS orthe CSI-RS.

Example 30 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the value corresponds to a CSI-RSRP or CSI-RSRQ.

Example 31 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the reference signal is an NR-RS.

Example 32 may include the method of example 31 and/or some otherexample herein, and the value corresponds to, based on the NR-RS, anRSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR.

Example 33 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the reference signal is a DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

Example 34 may include the method of example 33 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the value corresponds to an RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, orRS-SINR of the reference signal.

Example 35 may include the method of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method further comprises: measuring orcausing to measure a plurality of the reference signals that are receivebeamformed by a respective plurality of receiver panels; generating orcausing to generate an averaged value based on a plurality of valuesthat respectively correspond to the plurality of measured referencesignals; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signal toreport the averaged value.

Example 36 may include the method of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the method further comprises: measuring orcausing to measure a plurality of the reference signals that are receivebeamformed by a respective plurality of receiver panels; selecting orcausing to select more than one value from a plurality of values thatcorrespond to the plurality of measured reference signals, wherein anyof the selected values is larger than any of the unselected values;generating or causing to generate an averaged value based on theselected values; and generating or causing to generate a baseband signalto report the averaged value.

Example 37 may include a method comprising: processing or causing toprocess a transmission, transmit a reference signal to a UE; andprocessing or causing to process a baseband signal, transmitted by theUE, to determine a reported value to indicate a measurement of areceive-beamformed reference signal that is received by a receiver panelof the UE, wherein the receiver panel is to include a plurality ofreceiver antennas.

Example 38 may include the method of example 37 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the reported value corresponds to a maximumvalue of a plurality of values to respectively indicatereceive-beamformed reference signals that are received by a respectiveplurality of receiver panels.

Example 39 may include the method of example 38 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the receive-beamformed reference signals aremeasured by RSRP, RSRP, RSSI or RS-SINR.

Example 40 may include the method of example 37 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the reference signal is a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS,NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

Example 41 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples21-40, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 42 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 21-40, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 43 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 21-40, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 44 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 21-40, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 45 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 26-49, or portions thereof.

Example 46 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more basebandprocessors to measure, based on a reference signal that is received by aplurality of antenna panels, a plurality of receive beams that areformed by the respective plurality of panels, wherein the individualantenna panels are to include a plurality of antennas to respectivelyform the plurality of receive beams; and a central processing unit (CPU)coupled with the one or more baseband processors, the CPU to determine aplurality of values to respectively indicate the plurality of measuredreceive-beamformed reference signals, select a maximum value from theplurality of values, and generate a baseband signal to report themaximum value.

Example 47 may include the apparatus of example 46, and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein individual receive beams are respectivelyreceive-beamformed by individual panels that are associated withindividual receiver branches.

Example 48 may include the apparatus of examples 46-47, and/or someother examples herein, wherein the reference signal is a PSS, SSS,CSI-RS, NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

Example 49 may include the apparatus of examples 46-48, and/or someother examples herein, wherein the values correspond to measurements ofRSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, or RS-SINR of the individual receive beams.

Example 50 may include the apparatus of example 46, and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising one or more antenna panels includinga plurality of antennas respectively to: receive the reference signaland form, based on the received reference signal, one or more of thereceive beams.

Example 51 may include the apparatus of example 46, and/or some otherexamples herein, further comprising one or more receiver branches,respectively connected with the plurality of antenna panels, the one ormore receiver branches to receive the plurality of receive beams.

Example 52 may include the apparatus of example 46, and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the CPU is further to generate an averagedvalue based on a plurality of values that respectively correspond to theplurality of measured receive beams; and report the averaged value.

Example 53 may include the apparatus of example 46, and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the CPU is further to select more than onevalue from a plurality of values that correspond to the plurality ofmeasured receive beams, wherein any of the selected values is largerthan any of the unselected values; generate an averaged value based onthe selected values; and report the averaged value.

Example 54 may include an apparatus of baseband circuitry of an eNB, totransmit a reference signal to a UE, and process a baseband signal,transmitted by the UE upon receiving the reference signal, to determinea reported value to indicate a measurement of a receive-beamformedreference signal that is received by a receiver panel of the UE, whereinthe receiver panel is to include a plurality of receiver antennas.

Example 55 may include the apparatus of example 54 and/or some otherexamples herein, wherein the reference signal is a PSS, SSS, CSI-RS,NR-RS, DM-RS, PT-RS, or CRS.

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchartillustrations or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable medium that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instruction meansthat implement the function/act specified in the flowchart or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions that execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/actsspecified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what isdescribed in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limitthe present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specificimplementations and examples are described herein for illustrativepurposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments orimplementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made inlight of the above detailed description, without departing from thescope of the present disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant artwill recognize.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) in awireless network, the apparatus comprising: one or more basebandprocessors to perform operations comprising: receiving with beamforming,using one or more antenna panels of the UE, a plurality of instances ofa reference signal comprising at least one of a primary synchronizationsignal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), wherein theplurality of instances of the reference signal correspond to a pluralityof receiver branches of the UE, each receiver branch of the plurality ofreceiver branches being associated with one or more beamformed instancesof the reference signal; for each receiver branch, measure a signalvalue based on the one or more respective instances of the referencesignal, wherein the signal value corresponds to a synchronizationsignal-reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) or a synchronizationsignal-reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ); determining, among aplurality of measured signal values corresponding to the plurality ofreceiver branches, a particular signal value that is not lower than anyof the plurality of measured signal values; and generating a reportincluding the particular signal value; and a radio frequency (RF)circuit to perform operations comprising transmitting the report to abase station.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a receiver branch ofthe plurality of receiver branches is associated with one antenna panelof the one or more antenna panels.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, whereindetermining the particular signal value comprises determining a maximumvalue among the plurality of measured signal values.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein determining the particular signal value comprises:selecting more than one value from a plurality of measured signalvalues, wherein any selected value is larger than any unselected value;and averaging the selected values to determine the particular signalvalue.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reference signalcomprises one of a channel-state information-reference signal (CSI-RS),a new radio reference signal (NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal(DM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specificreference signal (CRS).
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the signalvalue measured for a receiver branch corresponds to one of referencesignal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ),reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), or reference signal-signalto noise plus interference ratio (RS-SINR) of individual beamformedinstances of the reference signal.
 7. An apparatus for a base station ina wireless network, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors toperform operations comprising: transmitting a plurality of instances ofa reference signal to a user equipment (UE) in the wireless network, theplurality of instances received using a plurality of receiver beams ofthe UE, each receiver beam of the plurality of receiver beams generatedusing one or more antenna panels of a plurality of antenna panels of theUE, wherein the reference signal comprises one of a primarysynchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronization signal(SSS); and receiving from the UE, a particular signal valuecorresponding to measurements by the UE of the plurality of instances ofthe reference signal, wherein the particular signal value corresponds toone of a synchronization signal-reference signal received power(SS-RSRP) or a synchronization signal-reference signal received quality(SS-RSRQ), and wherein the particular signal value is not lower than anysignal value measured by the UE of the plurality of instances of thereference signal.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the measurementsby the UE of the plurality of instances of the reference signalcorrespond to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, a receiverbranch of the plurality of receiver branches being associated with oneor more antenna panels of the plurality of antenna panels.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein each receiver branch of the plurality ofreceiver branches is associated with one or more instances of thereference signal.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the particularsignal value comprises one of: a maximum value among signal valuesmeasured by the UE, or average of a plurality of values selected fromamong the signal values measured by the UE, any selected value beinglarger than any unselected value.
 11. The apparatus of claim 7, whereinthe reference signal comprises one of a channel-stateinformation-reference signal (CSI-RS), a new radio reference signal(NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), a phase trackingreference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specific reference signal (CRS). 12.The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the particular signal valuecorresponds to one of reference signal received power (RSRP), referencesignal received quality (RSRQ), reference signal strength indicator(RSSI), or reference signal-signal to noise plus interference ratio(RS-SINR) of individual beamformed instances of the reference signal.13. A method comprising: receiving with beamforming, using one or moreantenna panels of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, aplurality of instances of a reference signal comprising at least one ofa primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronizationsignal (SSS), wherein the plurality of instances of the reference signalcorrespond to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, each receiverbranch of the plurality of receiver branches being associated with oneor more beamformed instances of the reference signal; for each receiverbranch, measuring a signal value based on the one or more respectiveinstances of the reference signal, wherein the signal value correspondsto a synchronization signal-reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) ora synchronization signal-reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ);determining, among a plurality of measured signal values correspondingto the plurality of receiver branches, a particular signal value that isnot lower than any of the plurality of measured signal values; andtransmitting a report including the particular signal value to a basestation.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein a receiver branch of theplurality of receiver branches is associated with one antenna panel ofthe one or more antenna panels.
 15. The method of claim 13, whereindetermining the particular signal value comprises determining a maximumvalue among the plurality of measured signal values.
 16. The method ofclaim 13, wherein determining the particular signal value comprises:selecting more than one value from a plurality of measured signalvalues, wherein any selected value is larger than any unselected value;and averaging the selected values to determine the particular signalvalue.
 17. The method of claim 13, wherein the reference signalcomprises one of a channel-state information-reference signal (CSI-RS),a new radio reference signal (NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal(DM-RS), a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specificreference signal (CRS).
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the signalvalue measured for a receiver branch corresponds to one of referencesignal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ),reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), or reference signal-signalto noise plus interference ratio (RS-SINR) of individual beamformedinstances of the reference signal.
 19. A method comprising:transmitting, using a base station in a wireless network, a plurality ofinstances of a reference signal to a user equipment (UE) in the wirelessnetwork, the plurality of instances received at the UE using a pluralityof receiver beams of the UE, each receiver beam of the plurality ofreceiver beams generated using one or more antenna panels of a pluralityof antenna panels of the UE, wherein the reference signal comprises oneof a primary synchronization signal (PSS) or a secondary synchronizationsignal (SSS); and receiving from the UE, a particular signal valuecorresponding to measurements by the UE of the plurality of instances ofthe reference signal, wherein the particular signal value corresponds toone of a synchronization signal-reference signal received power(SS-RSRP) or a synchronization signal-reference signal received quality(SS-RSRQ), and wherein the particular signal value is not lower than anysignal value measured by the UE of the plurality of instances of thereference signal.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the measurementsby the UE of the plurality of instances of the reference signalcorrespond to a plurality of receiver branches of the UE, a receiverbranch of the plurality of receiver branches being associated with oneor more antenna panels of the plurality of antenna panels.
 21. Themethod of claim 20, wherein each receiver branch of the plurality ofreceiver branches is associated with one or more instances of thereference signal.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein the particularsignal value comprises one of: a maximum value among signal valuesmeasured by the UE, or average of a plurality of values selected fromamong the signal values measured by the UE, any selected value beinglarger than any unselected value.
 23. The method of claim 19, whereinthe reference signal comprises one of a channel-stateinformation-reference signal (CSI-RS), a new radio reference signal(NR-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS), a phase trackingreference signal (PT-RS), or a cell-specific reference signal (CRS). 24.The method of claim 23, wherein the particular signal value correspondsto one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signalreceived quality (RSRQ), reference signal strength indicator (RSSI), orreference signal-signal to noise plus interference ratio (RS-SINR) ofindividual beamformed instances of the reference signal.